Holiday Surprises
by MagCat
Summary: AU: Christmas time is here once again, and Mr. Gary Oak is looking forward to going home for the holidays. What happens when he finds himself stranded in a cave with his friend’s girlfriend?


**Summary:** AU: Christmas time is here once again, and Mr. Gary Oak is looking forward to going home for the holidays. What happens when he finds himself stranded in a cave with his friend's girlfriend?

**Disclaimer: **As soon as I get my certificate of ownership saying I own _Pokémon_ then I'll tell you, but as of now it's not mine!!

"…": Characters talking

'…': Characters thinking to themselves

(…): Extra facts about the story/inner thoughts

**A/N Notes: **Hey! This is holiday fic. number four (meaning I've been doing this for four years… wow). This story is not related to my first three fics. (_Holiday Respite, Holiday Storm, _and_ Holiday Retreat)_; I decided to do something different. So… this is a stand-alone Christmas fic. that features, of course, my favorite couple in a situation that I think fits them very well. I will be updating _Falling in Love is Sometimes Unexpected… _soon, so enjoy! I'm really sorry about the long updates, but college's a pain in the ass and my writing is put on the back burner… as usual. This is decent length, but nothing like the monster oneshot I had last year. Enjoy and Happy Holidays to everyone from MagCat!

_**Holiday Surprises**_

_**Ten miles outside of Pallet Town, Kanto Region; 24 December 2004, 9:00 PM**_

"Damn it, this sucks," twenty-year old Gary Oak muttered, pissed off tremendously. He had been on his way home to Pallet Town to spend the holidays with his grandfather, sister, and nephew Tyler, but of course, as luck would have it, he had been caught in a large snow and ice storm. He had had to take shelter in a nearby cave and, to make things worse the entrance had been blocked by snow and ice.

"Shut up!" Ah, karma must have it in for him because he was also stuck with his best friend's girlfriend Misty Waterflower, youngest leader of the Cerulean City gym at twenty years of age.

"It's my cave too!"

"I don't want to hear you complaining, Oak! You're the one who got us stuck here in the first place!"

"What, you wanted to freeze? Be my guest!" Gary had come across a shivering Misty when he had been stumbling blindly through a particularly thick portion of mist and ice. Grabbing her arm, he had dragged her into the cave and put her next to the fire to warm up. Ungrateful wench; she hadn't had the decency to thank her for saving her life.

Misty sniffed before burrowing deeper into her royal purple ski jacket, her auburn hair a bright spot against an otherwise drab cave wall. Her Togetic stared at Gary before turning his attention back to his trainer. Gary scoffed before turning to stare moodily at the large pile of snow and ice that blocked the exit. His Umbreon stared at him with her yellow eyes before crawling onto his lap and resting her head against his hand. Gary absently-mindedly stroked his Pokémon as he brooded.

Misty, meanwhile, let her thoughts wander. She was stuck in a cave with Gary Oak, her best friend's former rival, and he was very... well, hot. 'No, I did not just think that!' Misty furiously thought, burrowing her head further into her jacket in the hopes of hiding her blush. Togetic chirped excitedly and landed on her head, trying to get his trainer to talk to him.

"No, I don't like him, what do you mean?!" Misty softly demanded, trying to keep her voice low so that Gary didn't hear her. Her teal-tinted blue eyes glared up at Togetic, who merely chirped some more. "Hush, he can't know anything!"

Umbreon was listening in on Togetic and Misty's conversation and, if she had had the ability, she would have smirked. Ah, so she did like her trainer, and not the black-haired one. Umbreon was very observant; she had to be in order to keep her trainer out of trouble. Her trainer liked the red-haired one, but was too stubborn to admit it; especially since his last... girl had abandoned him when she found out that he was not a rich man like the magazines claimed. Umbreon remembered biting the girl on the leg in retaliation and successfully placing the blame on her own Ekans. Ah, the good old days…

Misty paused a minute in her quiet argument with Togetic to observe Gary before saying, "Hey Oak! Aren't you cold?"

"Why? You actually care about me?" Gary sarcastically replied, his mind full of dark thoughts of revenge against the weather.

Misty sighed in irritation before replying, "Duh, you're Ash's best friend. Plus, I'm sure that your Umbreon's cold by now." Gary quickly looked down to see his Umbreon shiver and, silently cursing himself quickly moved over to the fire and sat down, satisfied to feel Umbreon slowly warm up.

"There, that's better, right?" Misty asked, Togetic chirping his agreement.

Gary looked at Misty from the corner of his eyes and slowly nodded, not trusting his voice now, especially considering that Misty looked like an angel with the firelight reflecting off her auburn locks. Damn it, she was Ash's girl! Why was he looking at her as if she was available? However, he did have to admit, if the light angled just a little more to the right and lit up her eyes, she was especially pretty...

"Oak! Hey Oak!" Gary almost jumped a foot high when Misty yelled his last name. Glaring at her, he was met with an equally intense glare. "Are you even listening?"

"What?" Gary growled, Umbreon's ears twitching at the sound.

"Did you try calling someone for help?"

"Why don't you?"

"I would, but my Pokégear's in the shop!" Misty hissed, eyes flashing again.

Gary snorted. "Fine, but don't blame me if there's no signal. We are in a cave, after all." With that, he got to his feet, placed Umbreon closer to the fire and went to go and retrieve his bag. Bringing it back to the fire, he reached inside and pulled out his Pokégear, praying that he would be able to get help.

Putting it to his ear after having dialed his grandfather's number Gary crossed his fingers. He belatedly noticed that Misty was doing the same thing. After a few minutes of silence, Gary heard a faint voice.

"_He- Hello?"_

"Gramps! Thank god!"

"_Who is this? Ga- Gary?"_

"Gramps, it's me, Gary. Listen, I'm trapped in some cave outside of town and,"

Gary was cut off when a burst of static interrupted him. Cursing, he yanked the Pokégear away from his ear and quickly tried to regain the signal, but to his frustration, the phone was dead.

"No luck, huh?" Misty asked dryly, resting her head on her knees, which she had drawn closer to her chest. Togetic chirped sadly from atop her head.

"I had my grandpa for about a minute then the phone went dead. Useless piece of junk." Gary tossed it back into his bag angrily. Then, turning to Misty he asked, "Still cold?"

Misty eyed him warily, wondering what he was up to now. "Nope, just fine. Why?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could release our Pokémon and use their body heat to keep warm."

Misty thought for a minute, ignoring the way Gary was looking at her before replying, "Sure. Sounds like a good idea."

Gary smirked then, reaching back into his bag retrieved not five Pokéballs but eight. On seeing Misty's puzzled expression Gary responded, "Since I'm not an official "trainer" anymore, I'm allowed to carry as many Pokémon as I want with me." As Gary let out his seven Pokémon, Misty shielded her eyes to prevent herself from going blind and after a few minutes, she opened them and her mouth dropped.

"Like what you see?" Gary asked an eyebrow uplifted in mock jest. Laughing, he pointed to each Pokémon in turn, introducing them. "May I present Arcanine (the firedog with purple eyes and brown mane mock-bowed, matching his trainer's sarcasm); Magmar (who nodded his head); Swablu (the pink-eyed, lavender-colored Pokémon immediately alighted on Gary's shoulder, nuzzling a hello to her trainer); Zangoose (with light-blue stripes and not red, complete with amber eyes immediately curled up into a ball and yawned); Blastoise (Gary's first Pokémon nodded a greeting); Aerodactyl (the slightly-smaller than usual jet-black Pokémon immediately sidled up to the fire); Golem (the rock and ground-type nodded to Misty as he rolled up into a ball); and Electivire (who joined Aerodactyl by the fire, ignoring Misty). What do you think?"

Misty retracted her jaw before grinning slightly and said, "Well, beyond the rude manners of some of your Pokémon, I _guess_ they're okay, considering there's only one water-type among the bunch."

"Oh, you can do better?" Gary asked an eyebrow slanted upward out of curiosity. Misty, grinning, took eight of her own balls out of her pocket and tossed them into the air.

"You're not the only one who can carry more than six Pokémon, Oak," Misty commented as her team appeared. "Introducing Vaporeon (a bright yellow scar ran through her left eye to her nose, clearly seen as she bowed to Gary); Glaceon (the ice-type Eevee evolution complete with a dark blue body and blue eyes yawned, obviously bored)' Gyrados (red-eyed and white chest armor covering sky blue scales, Gary stared in shock at the massive water dragon); Starmie (Misty's first Pokémon spun before stopping, its yellow gem glowing brightly against royal purple scales); Swampert (coal-black eyes staring at Gary intently, causing the professor to sweat slightly), Ninetales (cream-tipped tails on light brown fur and maroon-eyed, the fox calmly walked over to Misty, who scratched behind her ears); Marill (the water mouse chirped excitedly before running over to Misty, who grinned); and Blastoise (whose eyes glared at Gary's Blastoise, the latter of whom glared back)."

"Impressive," Gary admitted, his eyes taking in Misty's team. "Why the Ninetales, though? I thought you were a water-type trainer."

Misty shrugged. "When you've traveled as much as I have and run into as many dangers as I have, it always pays to be prepared. Plus," Misty grinned wickedly, which caused Gary to wonder if she was totally sane, "Ninetales is not a regular fire-type, are you girl?" Ninetales shook her head negatively and, nuzzling her head against Misty's arm stared at Gary, as if daring him to mock her.

"How so?" Gary asked, genuinely curious the professor inside of him feverishly thinking of reasons what could make a Ninetales unique.

Misty winked. "Wouldn't you like to know?" Gary gaped; was she _flirting _with him?!

'Was I _flirting_ with him?!' Misty asked herself, horrified by the concept. A few minutes later, she noticed that Gary was still shocked at her remark and inwardly smiled. 'Well, maybe it's not _so _bad; he is cute, after all.'

Umbreon and Togetic, meanwhile, were staring at each other, a plan coming into their minds at the exact same time. What fun it would be to get the two rival trainers together! Yes indeed.

_**Ten miles outside of Pallet Town, Kanto Region; 24 December 2004, 11:00 PM**_

A few hours later, the two trainers, surrounded by no less than eighteen Pokémon, were huddled against a wall, the fire having gone out long ago. They were sharing a pair of blankets, one from each person, and were now talking civilly, having found that if both calmed down enough and refrained from mentioning a certain raven-haired trainer they actually had a lot in common.

"So, you actually helped create a machine that brings fossils back to life?" Misty asked, snuggling down deeper into the blanket, unconsciously brushing against Gary and causing him to blush.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't all me. I had help and really, I was only there to study the Pokémon once they came back to life and learn more about them." He paused for a moment to scratch Aerodactyl behind her ear, causing the prehistoric Pokémon to growl in contentment. "After all, all we really know about them is circumstantial and is based off of assumptions; I wanted to see what they were really about and what they are really like. For example, Aerodactyl here loves Oran Berries, but wouldn't go near a Cherri Berry if it was the last piece of fruit on Earth."

Misty shook her head in amazement. "That's awesome; what I wouldn't give to have an Omanyte." She fell silent amazed that she had let something like that slip to _Gary Oak_, of all people.

Gary cocked his head. "Really now?"

"Forget it; it's just a dream," Misty muttered, now thoroughly embarrassed.

Gary leaned back, thinking. Umbreon, sensing her trainer was deep in thought jumped up onto his lap and began growling softly. Gary cocked his head, listening to Umbreon and nodding at certain intervals; the thought suddenly hit Misty that trainer and Pokémon were performing a synchronized dance routine, based on the number of nods in both the affirmative and negative elements that she was observing.

"Fine," Gary muttered at last, causing Umbreon to yip happily. Looking at Misty (or where he thought she was; after all, it was dark in the cave and said, "Look, uh, I came across a Dome fossil a few weeks ago, and the Dome fossil is the, uh, fossilized remains of an Omanyte, and so, uh,"

Misty sat in stunned silence as Gary rambled about how he could get her an Omanyte if she _really_ wanted one. Besides, the guy who ran the machine owed Gary, considering he had saved the guy's life a few times (read: ten times to be exact; the guy wasn't the most graceful mechanist/scientist ever).

Misty blinked. "Seriously?!"

Gary took a breath and replied, "Yeah. Seriously."

A minute passed with nothing but silence (and the dying wind outside, but no one took notice) and then Gary suddenly found himself surrounded by arms that smelled so nice... almost like strawberries and ocean spray (Stop that! he commanded himself).

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Misty squealed (squealed? Gods, I'm acting like my sisters...).

Gary wasn't exactly happy to be in the embrace of a young woman... then again, this _was_ a young woman and not exactly a typical run-of-the-mill one either...

"Sure, yeah, whatever," Gary mumbled, making no real effort to disentangle himself.

Misty was so caught up in the excitement of the moment that, not realizing what she was about to do she leaned up and gently kissed Gary's cheek. As soon as she had done this, she froze, realizing just _what_ she had done.

"Oh my god," she whispered, pulling away quickly. Gary unconsciously raised a hand to touch the spot where Misty had kissed him.

"What have I done?"

Gary didn't respond, too busy recalling how nice it felt, and really, how could he have felt like killing her two hours ago? She was so much better than any other girl he had dated (wait, we're not dating... are we?) and was so friendly and sensitive and, well, so unlike any other girl he'd ever met! Was it any wonder that he felt awed by this one simple gesture?

Misty, meanwhile, was having different thoughts... 'Oh my god, I kissed him; I kissed _Gary Oak_, the guy whom I think is hot, and I did it without thinking; does this mean that I like him? Does this mean that I'm an idiot? However, gods, his skin felt so smooth and he's really nice when we're not talking about Ash... oh my god, what will Ash think?! Wait, why does Ash matter? We're not dating, and he likes that Frontier Brain... So, why does it matter?!'

Togetic, sensing his trainer's changing emotions flew to the top of her head (he could see in the dark) and chirped words of comfort to her.

"You're saying it's okay?" Misty asked Togetic softly, her eyes subconsciously drifting to where she knew Gary was sitting.

"Togetic, Toge, Toge," Togetic chirped in reply, hoping that his words of encouragement would allay his trainer's fears about starting something with the other trainer.

Misty breathed a deep breath before opening her eyes and, nodding her head decided on what to do. Turning to face Gary (or at least where he was) she opened her mouth to say something but abruptly felt something soft pressed against her lips. Closing her eyes, she returned the kiss (for that's what it was; a kiss) before feeling the warmth pull away.

"Gary?"

Gary licked his lips, enjoying the taste of strawberry lip-gloss before replying, "Listen, Misty, I just wanted to say that, well, I really like you, and although it seemed earlier that I didn't I really do. Have since Johto. You're just so, well, different and unique; it makes me wonder what else we could do together... Ah, sorry. Bit of the "player" coming out."

Umbreon felt like hitting her head on the ground; her trainer was screwing everything up! Aerodactyl obviously felt the same way, if her growling was any indication. Then, miracle of miracles, they heard giggling.

"You sure are bad at this," Misty whispered her breath warm on Gary's face sending chills down his spine. "If you want to tell me that you like me, then you have to do this." Misty then proceeded to kiss Gary softly, to which he responded eagerly, and their Pokémon were all silently cheering.

After a few minutes, both trainers were grinning at the other (not that they could see it) and Gary responded, "I did tell you that way, though."

Misty smirked. "Sure, but you didn't do it well."

"Are you saying I'm a bad kisser?!"

"Maybe."

"I oughta," Gary paused as he heard a scraping sound. "You hear that?"

Misty cocked her head and grinned. "Sounds like a rescue's in the making." Sure enough, faint traces of voices were heard, along with grunting signifying work was being done to clear the opening. Gary and Misty slowly got to their feet (after much bumping into each other because of the darkness) and, taking out miniaturized Pokéballs began recalling their Pokémon, one by one, until only Umbreon and Togetic were left, both refusing to leave their trainers.

"Finally!" came an excited voice and both trainers had to cover their eyes to block the light that was shining on them. "You guys!"

Ash Ketchum rushed into the cave, a flashlight moving wildly as he ran. Behind him, a large group of people followed, and one instantly leapt upon Gary and hugged him tightly.

"You just have to get into trouble, don't you, bro?" May Oak asked her brother, hugging him tightly.

Gary returned the hug and replied, "Guess so, sis. 'Least I didn't have to go it alone this time." Gary glanced over to Misty, who was being "interrogated" by Ash and a group of mutual friends, among them a woman with short purple hair and lavender eyes who had Ash's arm wrapped around her waist. 'They're not dating! Yes!'

"Mist, you okay?" Ash asked worriedly, Anabel and the rest of the "group" all chiming in with their own questions.

Misty shrugged. "Fine. It was actually… fun."

Ash glanced between his best friend and his former rival and a smirk made its way onto his face. "I see." Anabel elbowed him, causing Ash's smirk to vanish and a grimace to make its appearance.

"Watch it 'bel!" Ash said, pouting. Anabel rolled her eyes and noticed that Misty was doing the same thing. They shared a look; Ash would always be the same.

"Let's say we get these two back to Pallet Town to warm up, huh?" Professor Samuel Oak said, raising his flashlight in the air to get everyone's attention. As the rather large group of rescuers began to make their way back towards Pallet Town Gary and Misty eventually drifted to the back of the pack. Ash and Anabel were moving among the pack, trying to ensure that Gary and Misty had some privacy.

"Some crazy night, huh," Misty commented, pulling her blanket closer, with Togetic perched on her head.

Gary shrugged. "Sure, but think about this: if not for this storm, would we even have found out that we could be more than what we are?"

"Secret poet, Oak?"

"Nah," Gary replied, lopsided grin covering his face. "Just a romantic, that's all." He pecked Misty on the lips again before pulling Misty into his blanket, mumbling something about sharing body heat. Misty laughed before accepting and pecked Gary on the check in thanks. Umbreon, who was perched on her trainer's shoulder looked over to Togetic and nodded. Mission accomplished, and what a holiday surprise it was, for whoever thought that two trainers thought to be so different were actually very much the same?


End file.
